Ten Poems about Robins

by Hamish Whyte

Genres: Poetry

20 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Hamish Whyte is a Scottish poet. He worked as a librarian and bibliographer in Glasgow before moving to Edinburgh in 2004. For more than thirty-five years he has run Mariscat Press, publishing the poetry of Gael Turnbull, Edwin Morgan and many others, in well-presented pamphlet form. Mariscat won the Michael Marks Pamphlet Publisher of the Year Award, and the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award, both in 2015.

Whyte has edited anthologies of Scottish poetry, including Mungo’s Tongues: Glasgow poems 1630 - 1990 (1993) and Scottish Cats (2013), and several issues of New Writing Scotland. He has also published, edited and written on his friend Edwin Morgan, Scotland’s first National Poet. Whyte’s own poetry has appeared in various Scottish magazines, he has many pamphlets to his name and three full collections have been published by Shoestring Press. He is a member of Edinburgh’s Shore Poets.

Reviews

[Lucas Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short collection of poems about robins.
I enjoyed reading each poem and most of the perspectives of the robins inside were written well and made them seem less like a bird and more like a friend.
I enjoyed the introduction as well, talking about Christmas and robins often being put together and things like that.

[Emily Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cutest Christmas card of all time. Ever. Fact.

[Cassidy J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Another tiny anthology by the Candlestick Press, however I didn't think this selection was especially good. I only actually enjoyed maybe two out of the ten poems, and considering the introduction specifically mentioned that there is a lot of poetry written about this jaunty little creature, you would think it would be easier to make a good selection from them. Of course, any selection is entirely subjective, but I found that I wasn't struck by most of these ones, which, in such a small collection, I think is a necessity.
I would give this one away to someone else, except that I love the cover so much...

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather like a Robin, this book is small, charming and not as simple as first meets the eye. The ten poems are varied, in style, in age, and in the way they look at the birds they describe. One to savour, to treasure and to return to.